PEER: BRITISH ANTI-SEMITISM WORST SINCE 1936

Anti-Semitism at 'worst level since 1936' (UK Telegraph)
A Jewish peer has warned that anti-Semitism is at its worst level in Britain since he fled here from Germany in 1936. Lord Moser said he was particularly concerned about anti-Jewish feeling in Britain's universities.

Addressing a House of Lords debate on anti-Semitism on university campuses, the crossbench peer said: "It is just over 70 years since I came to this country and I have to say that I've never been more concerned about the rising tide of anti-Semitism throughout Europe, including this country.

"This is evident in many ways and among my greatest worries is what is happening on university campuses where there have been many examples of anti-Semitic outbursts and discrimination. "Leadership of the universities and the Government need to speak out in the strongest terms against such interference."

During the Lords debate there was cross-party condemnation of a proposal by the Universities and Colleges Union Congress to boycott Israeli universities.

Baroness Morris of Bolton, for the Conservatives, attacked "a handful of lecturers who seem to have hijacked their union".

She said the proposed boycott "makes us look, unfairly, biased and petty-minded and it plays into the hands of radical fanatics on campus. There is a time and a place for teenage gesture politics - this isn't it."

Lord Patten, the former Conservative education secretary, described the idea of a boycott as "entirely abhorrent - engagement is always better than exclusion".

Baroness Walmsley, a Liberal Democrats, also opposed a boycott, saying: "I abhor the idea of limitations on legitimate academic freedom within reasonable limits."

Lord Adonis, the education Minister said: "The Government unequivocally deplores any proposed boycott.

"A boycott is not only wrong in principle, undermining the integrity of relations between bona fide centres of learning but in practice its only likely effect would be to weaken the progressive forces within both Israel and the Palestinian occupied territories."

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SEE ALSO: Boycott Plan Puts Our Reputation at Risk - Letters to the Editor (Guardian-UK)

• The proposal by the University and College Union for a boycott of Israeli universities is against all the principles of academic freedom that universities espouse. Such action threatens the universality of research and learning and is condemned by the Royal Society, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and Universities UK, representing all universities' vice-chancellors. It is explicitly opposed by the International Council for Science on the grounds that it conflicts with the vision of universities founded on freedom of inquiry, independent of political pressure.
• Nor will a boycott help the cause of the Palestinians or their universities, where there are many ongoing Israeli-Palestinian joint academic activities. These constitute one of the few avenues for dialogue between the two peoples and, as the president of al-Quds University has stated, a boycott would be harmful to the Palestinian cause.
• We strongly believe these efforts, by less than 0.15% of the membership of the UCU, to undermine academic dialogue tarnishes the reputation of the UK academic community and of the union itself.
• Academics have a professional responsibility to spread knowledge and promote understanding. The proposal by the UCU is an assault on academic freedom and intellectual exchange.

Jane Kennedy MP Chair, Labour Friends of Israel, Gillian Shephard President, Conservative Friends of Israel, Alan Beith MP President, Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel, Roger Lyons Chair, Trade Union Friends of Israel

Scant support for Israel boycott plan (Times UK)
The backlash against a threatened British boycott of Israeli universities gathered pace today with a statement from more than 250 distinguished academics and thinkers condemning the move as “bad for Britain, bad for academic freedom, bad for Palestinians and bad for peace”.

Signatories of the statement, which appears as a full-page advertisement in The Times today, include the heads of some of Britain’s leading scientific and learned research organisations, as well as eminent writers and broadcasters.

Robert Winston, the fertility expert, said that the proposed academic boycott, put forward by the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) Congress in protest at the continued occupation of the Palestinian territories, was “utterly inappropriate”.

Professor Winston added: “The academics in Israel are the very people we should be working with, rather than against, if we want to promote better understanding. I believe this boycott only has the support of a tiny proportion of academics in Britain.”

Lord Bragg, the writer and broadcaster, said that the UCU motion failed to take account of the complexities of Middle East politics.

“Long before me, people have fought for freedom of speech. It should be indivisible that that is that,” he said.

Colin Blakemore, chief executive of the Medical Research Council, said: “We have examined whether there are ever any circumstances where such a boycott would be effective and the only one would be where a country had sunk to such depths that its academics were effectively unable to communicate with colleagues in other countries and so would not really be affected.”

Baroness Julia Neuberger, a rabbi and Liberal Democrat peer, said that Israeli academics were responsible for important collaborative work with Palestinians. Baroness Ruth Deech, the independent adjudicator for British university students, said that she feared that the boycott would lead to a backlash against Jewish students on British campuses.

Last week Israel raised the spectre of international sanctions against British goods by preparing a motion for debate in its Parliament that would require British goods to be labelled: “This country is involved in an anti-Israeli boycott.”

The British production, of the Abba musical Mamma Mia!, due to open in Tel Aviv in a few weeks, has been jeopardised by threats from local theatre companies who are refusing to stage it in retaliation.

The UCU leadership does not support a boycott.

But Tom Hickey, the chairman of Brighton University’s UCU branch and proposer of the motion, said that it would enhance the international reputation of British academics.